Career Tips and Advice for Commercial Property Managers

The levels of knowledge and the professional skills required in commercial and retail property management are unique and deep. They are quite different to the skills required in a leasing or sales situation. A property manager is a differently skilled person, and they need to look at the big picture and remain focused on their properties and clients for months if not years.

That long-term focus allows the managed investment to improve over time through changes to the tenancy mix, the cash flow, and the property function. The investment process is lengthy; the investment requirements of clients will be individually unique. That is why and where professional service and property manager performance will underpin client attraction, retention, and engagement.

If commercial property management is a career for you, then there are some things to learn and disciplines to implement for the long term. Expect to be very busy as you embark on your career and remain in it as a professional.

Every day there will be pressures on your portfolio and your properties with tenants, maintenance, landlord focus, reporting, and risk management. As part of your career, you will be at the centre of many events, requests, and communications.

If your properties and workload pressures are excessive, you will lose control of the ‘property management process’; that then leads to unhappy clients and out of control tenants. There is a balance between quality property management services and a sensible workload of tenants and landlords.

Typically, the landlord will be your client, and you will be the main controlling factor to property performance and investment outcomes. That is why the skills of the property manager are so important. The days of collecting rent and maintaining the property are well gone. The strategic approach to property management is now well established and evolving in new and different ways with efficiencies in building technology and the requirements of local business.

What do you need to do?

Are you ready for the property management challenge? If you have a large portfolio or a long list of tenants, the complexity of the daily workload just gets deeper and more challenging. There will be plenty of work to control and direct. Here are some rules to help you with that approach:

Knowledge – get to know everything possible about your location, the leases, competing properties, business activity, rents, and investment priorities. Through a substantial level of knowledge, you will see how you can improve an investment situation for your clients. That is where tenant mix changes and leasing strategies will help with property performance. That then becomes an important part of your professional services.

Complexity – there are many variations to tenancy mix control, lease negotiations, rental cash flow, and property performance. The decisions of today with a tenant or lease matter will impact the investment for the long term. Understand your decisions and how you can improve the investment outcomes for your client.

Clients – every client will have different pressures and priorities when it comes to property performance. Get to know those factors with your clients, understand their portfolio activity, and look at the life cycle of their investments. Don’t just manage a property but understand the asset and the focus of the client.

Controls – there will be different systems that you can use to help you in providing services to your clients. Software programs will cover the facts and variables of lease management, rent collections, maintenance, and facility management.

Reporting – report about your managed properties in the ways that the landlords require. Information will help them make choices with rents, occupancy, and expenditure spending.

Tenants – expect the tenants to be pressuring you on their issues and their occupancy. A retail property is a prime example of that pressure with many tenants positioning for better sales, lower rents, and a successful business.

Property performance – every property should have a business plan and a budget to work to over time. The client or landlord will be setting investment priorities and cash flow controls. If you manage properties for many clients, the issue gets deeper and more challenging.

Through all these pressures and strategies there will be opportunities for a professional property manager to excel in skills and career development. Are you ready for the challenge?

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